Time for Week 2!

Posted Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

Buenas!! It’s Dakota, and it’s my turn to blog so, I’m just going to share a little bit of what went on today, but more so about the Microfinance Site. It’s hard to put so much of what I am thinking into one blog, so I’ll probably forget some things! So as you probably know, each morning we have individual quiet time where we go through our devotions, and just spend that time with God. This morning our devotion was about greed and selfishness, and remembering that we need to follow God’s will, but at the same time remembering that it may not always be the “American Dream”. We have to invest in Eternal things rather than earthly. I have realized just how much quiet time affects my life personally. I see how waking up and spending 45 minutes with God really makes a difference in my day, even if it takes waking up at 6:45, it just puts my day into perspective and prepares me for the day. When I come back, I definitely want to continue to spend that time in reading the Bible, and in prayer just talking with God. Because, if I don’t I can literally feel the difference of how I feel about my day.

So, this morning after breakfast, and the “Batman vs. Spiderman” debate, it was time to head to our sites! Today was getting back into the working, after the weekend, and at the Microfinance Site we took a bike taxi to go to see a woman named Carlita who is pregnant and has a son. Krissy, Sabrina, and I rode in one, and Maria, Miriam, and Holli rode in another. It was quite the experience! Once we got to Carlita’s she was so happy to see us. She had already finished making 2 hammocks out of the many that she is making for people in our team who bought them in advance to support her business. So, that was really cool. But anyway, we helped Carlita clean and organize her house. We organized and folded her clothing into nice organized piles by type, swept the floors, and organized her sons clothing. While Spanish Christian music played, Krissy, Maria, Holli, and I all pampered her by painting her nails, and doing her hair and makeup. We wanted to make her feel even more beautiful than she already is because she doesn’t feel that way because her husband tells her otherwise. At the end we prayed for her and she started crying, and saying thank you and how much she appreciated us doing that for her. It made me so happy just to see her so happy. Then we told her she couldn’t cry because the makeup would smear, so that made her laugh. It’s amazing to see how the littlest things can glorify God; even the act of braiding someone’s hair or giving someone a hug, or just talking to them can be glorifying to God while showing Christ’s love. We also walked 20 minutes to Valle de Volcano with the medical group to go with them as they set up their clinic in a shack and helped many of the poor people in the community, and they did a great job. After that our Microfinance Site took a motor taxi back to Maria’s where we got our crafts ready for the next day, which turned out to be harder than we thought! We are helping the women make cards with cornhusk flowers on them and even though it was long and tedious, moments like that I really appreciate because we’re able to connect with the people at our site and with our leaders Maria and Miriam. I think I can speak for us all, and say that we have all gotten close and especially with our site leaders and the people in our groups. Getting to hear testimonies and stories helps you relate to each other more and more importantly we’re able to see how God has worked in our leaders’ lives and how they got to where they are now, here in Nicaragua serving God and his people with everything they have to offer.

So tonight after dinner we had our Team Night. First, Elliot, Jacob, and Andrew presented their Cultural Leadership presentation which went great! Then, we split into 3 groups and had to come up with songs about our experiences in Nicaragua so far. (I’m pretty sure everyone will be seeing that video!) Group 1 did a remix to Party in the USA and even choreographed it! The group I was in, Group 2, made up a rap and used clapping, coke bottles, spoons, a bowl, maracas, a chair, and the hut to produce the music for our rap. It was awesome! Then Group 3 did a song to the Fresh Prince of Belair song and all wore sunglasses with their hoods up. They pretty good, but Natalia decided she liked Group 3 the best, but everyone did an awesome job, and many of us were laughing a lot! Then, we had a group time where we could share how being in Nicaragua has changed us and what are things we may do differently once we’re back at home. Sam, Andrew, Jenny, Corey, and Kelsey all shared some things that were really great, and I think it is just a really great thing to think about how we will keep this fire for God going even once were back in the chaos of everyday life. I know for me, God has just been showing me what it means to be content in everything and the importance of prayer in my life. Being with this team here in Nicaragua has been better than I thought, and I am really grateful for this opportunity as well as the people that went on this trip that I have grown to know and love. This team has such a fire and heart for Christ and just keeping each other accountable and talking and praying with each other has just been such a blessing. Today I realized, along with others on our trip, about how much of a difference it would make in our lives if we truly gave complete control to God. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for the rest of the week, but He has already done so many amazing things here with each and every site with each and every person! Well, it’s a little past 10 so gotta get off now, new day ahead!!